Volunteer for the blind McLeod dies at 78

By Ed Koch

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1998 | 10:58 a.m.

When Betty McLeod started losing her sight 15 years ago, she asked her husband, Duncan, to take her up to the mountains overlooking the Las Vegas Valley so that she could enjoy the autumn foliage.

"She loved to watch the colors change in the hills," Duncan McLeod, a former longtime Kerr McGee employee, said. "It made her so happy."

Betty J. McLeod, who lived in Henderson for 38 years and despite going blind from a degenerative eye disease and cataracts loved to cook and entertain her family even in her later years, died Oct. 2 in Eau Claire, Wis. She was 78.

"When we came to Henderson in 1950, it was not much of a town," Duncan said Tuesday in a phone interview from Eau Clair. "There were parking meters but few cars. Nobody put any money in the meters so the city took them out."

Betty enjoyed shopping at Henderson stores and raising her six children. She also worked as a housekeeper at Las Vegas hotels and as a babysitter to supplement the family income.

In Eau Claire, where she was born Betty Anderson on Sept. 11, 1920 -- and where she returned to live in 1988 -- McLeod was a longtime member of the local blind club and often prepared her favorite dishes for the organization's pot-luck parties.

"Another blind lady once asked my wife how she could eat food that had been prepared by blind people, not knowing what may have been (accidentally) put in it," Duncan said, noting that his wife was amused by the question. She assured the woman that the food was safe to eat.

"Even after my wife went blind, she was still a very good cook. But I had to help her so that she wouldn't burn herself."

Betty was raised in Eau Claire and graduated from Eau Claire Senior High School in the late 1930s. She married Duncan in St. Paul, Minn., on May 17, 1941.

In later years, she enjoyed a variety of music ranging from classical to pop to opera. McLeod also enjoyed visits from members of her large family that included 12 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

In addition to her husband, McLeod is survived by her mother, Inez Anderson of Eau Claire; five sons, John McLeod of Winnipeg, Canada, Robert McLeod of Arlington Heights, Ill., Brad McLeod of Tulsa, Okla., Mark McLeod of Eau Claire and Daniel McLeod of Modesto, Calif.; three brothers, Robert Anderson of Eau Claire, and Richard Anderson and John Anderson, both of Chippewa Falls, Wis.; and a sister, Jeanine Guncheon of Forest Park, Ill.

She was preceded in death by her daughter Cathy Muckenfuss in 1995 and her father Frank Anderson in 1993.